I am a Person- Centred Counsellor and offer non-directive Creative Play and Talking Therapy on a one-to-one basis for adults, children and young people. I have gained additional specialist training to work with children and young people from the age of 5-18 years of age and work within the BACP competence framework. I have good working knowledge of safeguarding procedures and hold a Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate (DBS). My fees are £40 for Children and £50 for Adults.

I offer adults, children and young people a safe contained space, to give them the opportunity to make choices and take responsibility for themselves without interpretation or judgement. I encourage everyone to express themselves freely and accept them unconditionally. In my experience, when people feel respected and accepted they are more able to think, feel and express themselves more deeply.

Creative therapy is very effective for people who find it hard to find the right words due to trauma, abuse or illness or if at home there is a strict code against talking about feelings or anything ‘negative’.

Playing with toys, sand, and arts gives clients the opportunity to explore feelings within the subconscious, which may be beyond the reach of language. Creative therapy is also effective when used to explore fears around medical issues, such as cancer. Studies have shown that young people who learn healthy coping skills early on are better able to navigate problems later in life.

Talking about life events can be easy for some adults, children and young people. They stay on the surface swimming around like a duck on a pond never dipping deep enough to discover how life events have affected them or made them feel. Or how their repeated behaviour is affecting others, or how others affect them.

Some people are experts at pushing things away and placing their feelings in bottles, or filing cabinets or drawers. “I don’t need to talk to anyone, what is the point”. Sometimes, they push so hard they become numb to how they are feeling.

Other people have grown up in a household where showing emotions is classed as weak. Wearing rose tinted glasses is much better and never let that glass be half empty.

Whether you find talking easy, hard or can’t talk, counselling is a place you can learn to trust yourself and gradually remove your armour, knock down any walls, and explore anything that comes up for you.

One of the main differences between working therapeutically with adults and children is that they are referred to me by other people rather than themselves. Therefore, it is very important that the child or young person is agreeable and wants to attend counselling.